Billionaire Styers backs climate tech firm Regrow Ag

div classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodivpBy Simon Jessop and Karl Plumep

pLONDONCHICAGO Reuters – Billionaire Tom Styers and investment partner Katie Hall have led the latest funding round for technology startup Regrow Ag, which aims to help accelerate the shift to climatefriendly farming.pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

pTheir Galvanize Climate Solutions was joined in the 38 million Series B fundraising by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff‘s TIME Ventures and Rethink Impact, alongside existing investors including trader Cargill and Microsoft’s M12.p

pFood and agriculture contributes 26 of the worlds total carbon emissions, Regrow says, and is a growing area of focus for companies as they look to reduce their own emissions by greening their supply chains.p

pTo help fix the problem, Regrow, a softwareasaservice SaaS company, connects companies and others with farmers, who enrol in various programmes that pay them for adopting farming practices that reduce emissions, preserve soil quality and minimise use of chemicals.p

p“Agriculture needs resilience not just to put food on our plates today, but to support a liveable planet for future generations,” said Regrow cofounder and chief executive Anastasia Volkova.p

pSuch farming techniques in many cases involve reverting to more traditional practices, common before the advent of industrialscale farming, but at a cost that many farmers are unwilling to take without financial help.p

pCompanies and others keen to see it happen, such as statebacked institutions, meanwhile, want to be sure they are getting what they pay for and not wasting money on a farmer who hasnt actually changed methods and cut emissions.p

pMarkets for carbon captured and stored in agricultural soils have struggled to scale up due to systemic problems with measuring their climate benefit and questions about the permanence of carbon captured by intensive row crop farming.p

pGlobal croplands and grasslands can capture and store the equivalent of up to 8.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide a year, according to a 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.p

pRegrows technology platform allows farmers to establish a baseline for their carbon emissions and then estimate the likely savings by changing certain practices, such as by tilling the fields less or by introducing livestock to the farm.p

pAfter agreeing to make the changes, Regrow uses satellite imaging and remote sensing to check the emissions have been reduced, giving greater assurance to the buyers of the carbon credits that are created as a result.p

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pp Reporting by Simon Jessop and Karl Plume Editing by Mark Potterp

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